Category Archives: Eng 431, Spring 2016

In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Sir Andrew recounts his drunken memories of the Feste’s performance the night before. Sir Andrew says to the Fool: In sooth, thou wast in very gracious fooling last / night, when thou spokest of Pigrogromitus, of the / Vapians passing the equinoctial of Queubus: ‘twas / very good, i’ faith. I […]

In the community of Shakespeare scholars there seems to be some debate about the witches in Macbeth. Are the witches really capable of using magic or are they just three old women who know how to manipulate other people? Many adaptations of this play have explored these possibilities. In The Royal Shakespeare Company’s adaptation of […]

The question has been asked time and time again. How has Shakespeare managed to create such a name for himself that to this day people are still talking, and reading about him. Shakespeare is one of the most studied topics out there with new scholars popping up out of the woodwork just to continue the […]

Although Kenneth Branagh is no stranger to all things Shakespeare, one of his best performances (arguably) is Hamlet. In this movie adaptation, Branagh not only functions as the star in the production, but he is the director of the 1996 film as well. Here, I would like to focus on the well-known words/scene, […]

The Royal Shakespeare Company has a wide range of resources to help teachers bring Shakespeare alive in their classrooms. There are various teacher packs to choose from, and by visiting the company’s website, you can navigate through an array of image and video galleries that are available to use in your classroom. While this company […]

While reading Othello, I couldn’t quite fathom why a clown would ask the musicians if their instruments had been to Naples, “Why, masters, have your instruments been in Naples, that they speak i’ th’ nose thus?” (411). Perhaps the musicians themselves have been to Naples or (perhaps) the instruments were painstakingly made there; these are […]

And so we come to the fourth and last blog of the semester, in which I kill two birds with an equally proverbial stone (because my aim too horrible for me to able to do that literally) as I read an article for “The Paper” and fulfill prompt number three respectively. Article title? Feste’s “Whirligig” […]

According to Stephanie Chamberlain, writer of the article entitled “Fantasizing Infanticide: Lady Macbeth and the Murdering Mother in Early Modern England,” infanticide was deemed a “crime against both person and lineage.” It was treated at sin and the punishment was hanging. While at the end of Act I Lady Macbeth claims she would have “dashed […]

Castles are a lot like mansions in literature both being creepy, dark and typically cold. This could be due to the fact that they were enormous in size and heat would be way too expensive even for the rich who owned them. The creepiness comes from the difficulty in keeping them well kept, so they […]

I watched the movie Macbeth directed by Justin Kurzel. I decided to focus mostly on Macbeth’s character and how he is portrayed. Macbeth and lady Macbeth appear to be very close at the beginning of the movie, after what appears to be their son’s death. With this sort of beginning I believe that audience is […]

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia tells her father, Polonius, that Hamlet has “made many tenders of his affection” to her. The first time I read this play, I just assumed “tenders” was suggestive of heartfelt feelings, as in “tender” feelings. However, this most current reading had me questioning Shakespeare’s intended meaning of this word. According to […]

Amelia Bitely states in her thesis, “Some of William Shakespeare’s most intriguing tales are the ones that the Bard never told” (Bitely 3). What was really going on with Ophelia? How would Romeo and Juliet play out in the 21st century? How did Olivia’s life turn out when she married Sebastian, a total stranger, in […]

For my last blog post I watched the Michael Fassbender version of Macbeth because, if anything, I could listen to Scottish accents for nearly two hours. Overall, it was not bad, but I do not think I would watch the movie again. It may have been because I watched it at night, or because I […]

After reading Macbeth I know we had much discussion on whether Lady Macbeth was a truly evil person or not. I figured I would like to elaborate some more on this subject matter just because I found the character of Lady Macbeth so interesting. The biggest theory we spoke about was the possibility that there […]

There are many different sources to turn to when looking for aid and additional information regarding Shakespeare. I have decided to explore and analyze MIT Global Shakespeares, an online scholarly site that is intended to promote cross-cultural understanding. The site also serves as an excellent resource for students, teachers, and researchers when exploring the works […]

In Act I Scene I, Iago and Roderigo gossip about “the Moor.” Despite giving backhanded compliments, the Moor’s name is never spoken. The word cloud shows the prominence of the Moor in the conversation. The person behind the term is topic of conversation, yet is objectified by racist language. Later, we find out the Moor […]

For my fourth blog post, I decided to use Voyant to analyze the most common words in Act 1, Scene 2 of Macbeth. In this scene, we haven’t been introduced to Macbeth just yet—as an audience, we are solely relying on how other people talk about Macbeth before we see him or hear him speak for […]

Having never read Macbeth or seen any of its adaptations, I decided to do my final blog post on a movie that we have seen clips of in class. The parts that we watched of Justin Kurzel’s 2015 Macbeth are gorgeously slowed-down battle scenes and eerily stunning scenes of the weird sisters. Watching those, I […]

Today, when we see the word “Moor” outside of Shakespeare, we typically think of a ship or a swamp. Medieval England and Shakespeare, however, would assume you were referring to a Muslim, heretic, a sub-Saharan African, an Arab-Barbarian, a North African, or a general colored person. It was all the same in Shakespeare’s day – […]

When reading Shakespeare, many students turn to online sources to assist in their understanding of the plot. Because of this, there are many sites available that are not scholarly and do not offer students the best chance at understanding the play. However, there are sites such as The Internet Shakespeare Editions that allow for a […]

Justin Kurzel’s 2015 Macbeth is twisted with violence and bloodshed from beginning to end. Similar to Shakespeare, Kurzel sets his film in 11th century Scotland, where a battle of forces rages on barren plains set beneath the looming Scottish Highlands. Kurzel, however, makes one slight adjustment: He sets his film within the depths of Hell. […]

One has to wonder while reading Macbeth, whether or not Macbeth would have actually done all of the bad things that he did, if Lady Macbeth hadn’t been around to encourage him to do so. Even though Macbeth definitely had his own thoughts on murder, “my thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, shakes so […]

Having access to performances of Shakespeare is key to a deep understanding of the text. Since these works of literature were originally performed as plays, reading the lines doesn’t always give us the full picture. Sites like MIT Global Shakespeare give everyone access to a large variety of all Shakespeare’s plays so that the small […]

When researching Shakespeare’s Desdemona, many images came up, but none that I thought fit what Venetian women of the time would actually have worn. They had many pictures of her wearing clothes that could be seen as being rather inappropriate for a person of her standing as well as the time. I find the images […]

I had the pleasure of watching an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. The film was made in 1993 and had a slew of actors that had played in many of other adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays. A few to mention are Kenneth Branagh who was also in Henry the 5th, Macbeth, Hamlet, and Othello. […]

It goes without saying that literature has changed immensely since the beginning of the written word. Every conceivable aspect of storytelling has morphed in a drastic way. While some have changed more than others, few have seen an evolution as fascinating as that of the hero, and one way to understand the journey of the […]

Shakespeare students recently annotated film adaptations in order to analyze directorial decisions. See a sample of their projects below. “Lucas’ Cabin of Literature” Film Credits: Much Ado About Nothing. Dir. Kenneth Branagh. 1993. Tech Credits: iMovie “A Quiz About Hamlet” (Take it! You know you want to!) Film Credits: Hamlet. Dir. Gregory Doran. Perf. David […]

In the 2000 version of Hamlet staring Ethan Hawke, Michael Almereyda chose to interpret Hamlet in New York City with a dystopia-like feel. The simple and minimalistic camera creates a world that seems two-dimensional and flat. The slightly awkward filming techniques combined with eerie silence and stillness created a sense of detachment and somberness. These […]

When our group did our project on Gregory Doran’s presentation of Hamlet, there was a point in the scene we chose that stopped the banter back and forth near the end — the meaning of the security camera. It is true the meaning behind the security camera implementation is open to a great amount of interpretation […]

In Othello, Iago is readily seen as ‘not a nice person’, to put it mildly. He attempts to accuse Othello of unseemly acts, convinces everyone to see things his way, and is in general a racist and sexist bastard. It only makes sense, then, that at one point he says “By Janus, I think no” (1.2.33). […]

Hello, fellow Shakespearean followers. The day is a “Grimm” one as we look upon several more tragic deaths like Juliet’s. In a film adaptation of Hamlet by Zeffirelli there are plenty of odd decisions that I will be analyzing. After Hamlet has spoken with the ghost of his father he starts to go crazy in the film. […]

Hamlet Act 3 Scene 4 This is a pivotal scene in Hamlet. At this point in the play, Polonius and Gertrude are waiting for Hamlet to arrive so they can determine if he is mad with love for Ophelia or if he is just mad. When Hamlet arrives, he and his mother have a very […]

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a dense play with a ton going on, which can make it difficult to understand. To make reading the plays easier for students, Rosemarie Gavin suggests pairing a Shakespearian work with a popular children’s movie. Students will be able to relate to the play, as well as be able to read […]

There are a lot of lines, that one can get lost in while reading Shakespeare. Sometimes doing a little research into a line or passage can go a long in way in figuring out the meaning of a play. A line that caught my attention in Othello was, “Blessed fig’s end! The wine she drinks […]

While reading Act II, scene i of Shakespeare’s Othello, I came across the word “knave” in the lines voiced by Iago who is describing Cassio. Iago says, “A knave very voluble, no further conscionable than in putting on the mere form of civil and humane seeming for the better compass of his salt and most […]

For the group project our group chose to watch the 1993 K. Branagh’s version of Much Ado about Nothing. We chose to focus on a scene with Benedick. However, as I watched this adaptation on the play, I realized a few things that were different from the play to film, and a few tid-bits that […]

After watching Joss Whedon’s 2012 movie adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” I was initially pretty shocked, and I wasn’t completely sure if it was in a good way or not. Some of the director’s decisions threw me off at first, and if I hadn’t have read the play beforehand, I would be pretty […]

Wagner begins the article by talking about how Ophelia is most important to the audience than she is to Hamlet and Shakespeare. This seems a little appropriate as a start to an article dedicated to describing how Ophelia is simply a decoration for the story. She has no backstory of her own and she is […]

Alex Bricco A version of Hamlet preformed in Wrocław Poland (directed by Monika Pęcikiewicz) takes a drastically different approach to the tragedy but according to Saffron J Walkling that isn’t a bad thing. The question the play sought to answer according to Walkling was, “…what is Hamlet in today’s world, and to what extent can […]

Jo Richards “Ophelia in Hamlet – psychiatry in literature” discusses the different responses regarding Hamlets and Ophelia’s connection to loss and abandonment. The characters responses and actions provide a compelling study for today’s psychiatrists. Hamlet displays the characteristics of a desperate man through his soliloquies in act three and four, where he reveals the turbulent […]

Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most recognized and celebrated plays. Because of this there have been several modern adaptations made to share the iconic ideas and themes. Released in 2009, director Gregory Doran produced a modern adaptation of Hamlet featuring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart. While this film shows strong links to spying and always […]

In the play Macbeth the witches of the play take a critical role in forwarding the plot and added a supernatural element to the play. In a 2011 adaption of the play starring Patrick Stewart the traditional Scottish witches of Macbeth are turned into creepy war time nurses. This version of the play seems to take place in […]

For this Voyant word cloud, I inserted the text from Act 3, Scene 1 of Twelfth Night. In this scene, Viola disguised Cesario and Olivia are meeting for the first time. Viola’s mission is to woo Olivia with pretty poetry on behalf of “his” master Orsino. A basic analysis of the cloud reveals that […]

In the essay Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and The Pregnant Enemy, author Maurice Hunt proposes a darker reading of Twelfth Night, where she compares the text to “the dark side of the carnival world” (5). She aims to provide evidence that ‘a devil pregnant with child’ exists within Twelfth Night. According to Hunt, Twelfth Night alludes to the […]

After reading Henry V, I decided to treat myself with two and a half hours of watching Tom Hiddleston in the film adaptation. However, within the early minutes of the movie, I came to the realization that while dreamy, Tom is nowhere near the intense and sometimes brutal king portrayed through the words of the […]

“R” is for “Oyster” “I will not be sworn but love may transform me to an oyster, but I’ll take my oath on it, till he have made an oyster of me, he shall never make me such a fool.” (Benedict, Much Ado About Nothing) I know I already chose Much Ado About […]

When Malvolio wears his cross-gartered stockings he makes the most hilarious and crazy scene in twelfth night (3.4). Malvolio is not usually as zany as he appears to Olivia, but by acting in such a smiley and presumptuous manner, and wearing the most ridiculous clothing that Maria could think up he seems to be crazy. The […]

Since madness is a common theme throughout many of Shakespeare’s plays, it is especially intriguing to examine the definition of madness within Twelfth Night. “Shakespeare uses such words as ‘mad’ and ‘madness’ more often in Twelfth Night than in any of his other plays” (Joost Daalder 105). Shakespeare never gives the audience an exact definition, […]

Word clouds are an amazing tool that is available to readers who want to get something extra out of their effort. A word cloud is a collage of words taken from an article, book, or play etc. The collage is then generated using sites like Voyant or Word Cloud. The words that the collage consists […]

This blog post discusses the Royal Shakespeare Company’s film adaptation of Hamlet: Prince of Denmark. This adaptation is directed by Gregory Doran and stars David Tennant as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart as Claudius. And in my personal opinion it is the best adaptation of Hamlet that I’ve seen so far. The […]

In Act I, Scene 5 of Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, the Ghost informs Hamlet of the grotesque way in which he died. The Ghost explains his death in disturbing detail, revealing how his own brother, Claudius, selfishly murdered him: “Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole With juice of cursed hebona in a vial And in […]

When we studied Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in class we focused a lot on the absurdity of Malvolio’s gross-gartered stockings but I was curious to know more about this Elizabethan style of dress. I learned that there is as much significance to the color yellow as there is the way in which said stockings were gartered. […]

Shakespeare’s classic history Henry V is by all accounts a thrilling retelling of the English king’s impossible victory over the French at the Battle of Agincourt. To the Elizabethan people, the play would have been even more enthralling due to how recent the events of the play were at the time of its performance, but for […]

I have a sure fire way to introduce new words into my world while reading from a book: I circle it with my purple pen, write “def?” (for definition), grab my phone, and trust that the dictionary.com app will come through for me. This is not the case for The Norton Shakespeare. With this particular […]

In Shakespeare’s play, Much To Do About Nothing , Claudio claims to have been ordered by Benedick to “carve” up a calf’s head and a capon and while he’s at it a woodcock too (Act 5 Scene1). At this point in the play Hero has “died” due to Claudio claiming she has been sleeping around, […]

Shakespeare has anxiety associated with it for many people. There is fear in some regard I would argue. I think what some people fear is difficultly of it, or lack of understanding. However frit not, it is possible to understand him. Shakespeare is accessible. It can be done. I am going to tell you about […]

In more than one Shakespeare play, the audience has to wonder why Shakespeare goes from having a character speaking in iambic pentameter in one scene, to speaking in prose in the next. Sometimes it deals with who the character is, or who the character is talking to. For instance, in King Henry V, when Henry […]

After hearing that Keanu Reeves’ stale acting would grace the screen as Don Jon in Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation I had to see it. As fun as reading the plays on paper is, I found that the humor is much more present in the film adaptation. There were parts while I was reading that I could […]

When I first saw the movie She’s the Man, I was a naïve little freshman who, stuck in a camper with her cousins on a stormy day, was only trying to kill time until the sun came out so we could go swimming. I had no idea that this hilarious movie was a modern adaptation […]

I was looking over Shakespeare’s World in 100 Objects, and I stopped on Number 63: a will (findingshakespeare.co.uk). Like many people, I know what a will is and what it is for, but I could not help but wonder why King Hamlet did not have a will for himself in Hamlet. Wills date back to ancient […]

Olivia is the prize at the end of Twelfth Night‘s rainbow. Everyone wants her, but no one can have her. She is in mourning for her lost brother for seven years, and will take no suitor. The image of a Victorian woman in mourning is quite strong, but with the theme of Twelfth Night the play and Twelfth […]

Andy Fickman, director of She’s the Man, an adaptation of the Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare, recreated the play using many similarities as well as differences. Fickman turned the play into a modern version of a different central theme, but he used the same characters and ideas performing the same, yet different tasks. Some differences […]

Who in the world thought it would be okay for Hamlet to be wearing a t-shirt and jeans in this movie? In the 2009 TV version of Hamlet, David Tennant plays the young Hamlet, a son in despair after his father’s recent death. The film is set in modern times, with the technology and the […]

As I am working my way through Hamlet I have noticed that many times I become confused or completely lost while reading. For many, this is the case, but with tools such as Voyant we are given the opportunity to look at the text in a new way. Not only is it a tool that […]

While reading Twelfth Night I was both lost and underwhelmed for most of the play. The plot was confusing with everyone so jumbled around, pretending to be each other. I couldn’t keep track of the plot, let alone pick up on themes or double meanings. A tool such a Voyant lets us as readers take […]

At first glance, it is clear the play Hamlet is named appropriately considering the most used word is Hamlet. Likewise, the next largest words are King and Lord which also seems appropriate considering the plot with Claudius and the ghost of Hamlet’s father. However, using this word cloud alone, a reader would not get […]

(Not my purse, but I do think it’s cute) In Act 3 Scene lines 38-47, Antonio and Sebastian are parting ways so that Sebastian can go wander while Antonio secures them lodging. Antonio graciously offers Sebastian his purse in case Sebastian finds something in town that he would like to purchase. Antonio’s affection for Sebastian […]

Hamlet’s soliloquy is perhaps the most famous and recognizable in the world. “To be or not to be, that is the question” is readily quotable by the masses, but the speech has amassed a variety of interpretations by actors. The most common interpretation of the speech is that Hamlet is contemplating escaping his complicated life […]

Much Ado About Nothing was one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, written in 1598. This play takes place in Messina, Italy; the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy with a total population of 252,000. One of the most noteworthy characteristics of this city is the large catholic […]

Shakespeare is a literary master and can convey a series of different meanings within one single word. In order for English majors to keep up, the “Norton Shakespeare” adds footnotes at the bottom of every page with meanings to different words and phrases. One of these words came up that confused me, and I felt […]

One of the most difficult aspects of reading any philosophical musings by a non-English speaking philosopher, is whether the translation is accurate enough to convey the message the philosopher intended. The slightest change in interpretation of a word can have serious consequences as to the meaning of the message intended. Faith or belief, for example, […]

In Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, in the first act and first scene line three, Beatrice, when talking to the Messenger about Benedict, says, “[Benedict] challenged Cupid at the flight.” When I first read this, I immediately turned to the footnote at the bottom of the page see what she meant by this and two meanings […]

While I have seen other film adaptations of Shakespeare in the past, I lacked enough understanding of his work to appreciate the films in any capacity. This time around, I dove into Kenneth Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing with some ability to translate the alien language that is early modern English. I was floored by what I saw. […]

I have picked the city of London to talk about. London is one of the main settings for Henry V. I think it is very important for someone who is reading a play, especially one from a long time ago, to know at least a little bit about the setting. The one place that is […]

While reading Much Ado About Nothing I kept seeing the word cuckold. I had a very loose grasp on what the word was but still was not quite sure what it meant. It seemed to be a popular word of the time and was used often enough to warrant further exploration of what it meant. […]

My scope of Shakespearean work is a very narrow one indeed and I know all this will change as I dive into his plays more thoroughly and tackle some of the greatest literature ever written. But before this conversion takes place, I need to be able to establish some common ground with “The Bard of Avon” in […]

During the play, Much Ado about Nothing, Benedict and Beatrice rival each other with their wits and sharp tongues. In one specific scene they dance together and continue to pit their wits against one another. I chose this passage to analyze due to it being one of the only scenes before their friends trick them into […]

A Shakespearian comedy is classified by certain characteristics and traits: mistaken identity, a happy ending, and other aspects. As we talked about the comedies in class, I came to a realization: Mad Max: Fury Road fits almost every single characteristic of a comedy. To those who have seen the movie, this sounds ridiculous, but it […]

The play Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare is quite the tale of cat and mouse. In Act 2 Scene 2, lines 95-115, Leonato, Pedro and Claudio are discussing rumors that Beatrice is in love with Benedict, even though she refuses to admit it to Benedict. Initially Benedict is in disbelief, he claims that the very […]

In Act 3 Scene 3, lines 35-40, Dogberry and the Watchmen are conversing about that night’s duty. Dogberry is trying to find a temporary constable for the night, so he can go sleep. Sleep turns into the subject of conversation, and all the men want to “sleep.” And that’s where the Oxford English Dictionary comes […]

I chose the fifth prompt and made a word cloud out of Act 2 of “Much Ado About Nothing” here it is. As you can see the most used words in the act are conjunctions and words like, the, but after looking closer more important information can be found. Sexism within words begins to appear. For […]

In Act Two, Scene Two of Shakespeare’s comedy play, “Much Ado About Nothing,” Don John discovers Claudio and Hero’s wedding arrangement, and with the help of his servant Borachio, creates a plan to ruin the upcoming marriage. Borachio proposed ruining Hero’s reputation by making everyone, especially Claudio, believe that she is not a virgin and […]

Although it seemed relatively common and easier to think through as I read the lines, I thought it would be interesting to research the Shakespeare’s use of “Grace” in his play, Much Ado About Nothing. While analyzing this word, I focused on the lines between Pedro and Beatrice where he essentially asks Beatrice to marry […]

As one can imagine, the word “nothing” appears frequently in William Shakespeare’s 1598 play, Much Ado About Nothing. It’s in the title after all, so it must be relatively important to the understanding of the play. Many have probably wondered about the use of “nothing” in the title of the play, which is a legitimate […]

When looking through our Shakespeare works, I noticed a common theme of a drink noted throughout the plays. That particular drink was ale. “Do you think because you are virtuous, that there shall be no more cakes and ale?” quoted from The Twelfth Night, Act 2, scene 3. Of course I am aware of what ale […]

“As I dare take a serpent by the tongue. Boys, apes(fools), braggarts, jacks(knaves), milksops!” This line appears in Act 5 Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s, Much To Do About Nothing, play. On the surface this line clearly shows a tone of anger but also a hint of mockery. Yet deep down I can’t help but feel […]

For my first blog post, I will explore and analyze the MIT Global Shakespeares’ website. This site contains an archive of videos of performances, as well as essays from scholars from all over the world. This site is run by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in collaboration with HamletWorks, Professor Hyon-u Lee of Soonchynhyang University […]